State Ex Rel. Juvenile Department v. Orozco

878 P.2d 432, 129 Or. App. 148, 1994 Ore. App. LEXIS 1108
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 20, 1994
Docket65848B; CA A77754
StatusPublished
Cited by51 cases

This text of 878 P.2d 432 (State Ex Rel. Juvenile Department v. Orozco) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Juvenile Department v. Orozco, 878 P.2d 432, 129 Or. App. 148, 1994 Ore. App. LEXIS 1108 (Or. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

[150]*150RIGGS, J.

In 1992, child was found to be within the jurisdiction of the court for having committed acts that, if done by an adult, would have constituted rape in the first degree. ORS 163.375. The court denied child’s request to convert his delinquency petition to a dependency petition and committed him to a juvenile training school. The juvenile court also ordered child to provide a blood sample for DNA testing pursuant to former ORS 419.507(ll)(a)1 and ORS 137.076. We review de novo. Former ORS 419.561(5); State ex rel Juv. Dept. v. Qutub, 75 Or App 298, 706 P2d 962, rev den 300 Or 332 (1985).

1,2. Child first assigns error to the order requiring him to submit a blood sample. He argues that a search authorized by ORS 137.076 violates Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The proper sequence for analyzing a constitutional claim in Oregon is to look first to state law, including state constitutional law, before reaching a federal constitutional claim. Sterling v. Cupp, 290 Or 611, 614, 625 P2d 123 (1981). Statutes are accorded a presumption of constitutionality unless no constitutional construction is possible. State v. Smyth, 286 Or 293, 296, 593 P2d 1166 (1979).

Former ORS 419.507(ll)(a) provided, in part:

“Whenever a child is found to be within the jurisdiction of the court under ORS 419.476(l)(a) for having committed an act which, if done by an adult would constitute a felony offense listed in ORS 137.076(1), the court shall order the child to submit to the drawing of a blood sample in the manner provided by ORS 137.076.”

Once the blood is extracted, a genetic profile is developed and added to the database for adult and juvenile sex offenders.2 [151]*151ORS 181.085. Drawing a blood sample implicates Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure.3 State v. Milligan, 304 Or 659, 748 P2d 130 (1988).

The question before us is whether the search for a DNA “fingerprint” in the blood of sex offenders is reasonable when the DNA is sought for possible use in future criminal investigations. Child argues that it is reasonable for the state to extract blood for evidentiary purposes only if it has a warrant, based on probable cause, or if an exception to the warrant requirement applies. However, the warrant requirement has never been applied to routine searches of convicted or adjudicated persons under state custody. Whether the blood draw is an unreasonable search must be determined with reference to child’s right to privacy, which is diminished because he is in post-adjudicated custody.

Routine searches of prisoners and probationers without probable cause are reasonable if there is a penological objective. See State v. Culbertson, 29 Or App 363, 563 P2d 1224 (1977). Language in Culbertson would appear to suggest that a search under ORS 137.076 is unreasonable because its objective is not penological.

“[Pjrisoners, even while incarcerated, retain those constitutional rights that are not inconsistent with legitimate penological objectives.” 29 Or App at 369.

The state fails to isolate any penological objective for ORS 137.076, i.e., any objective related to the management or mission of a prison. Nevertheless, when the case law and statutes defining the constitutional rights of convicts are read [152]*152as a whole, it becomes clear that penological objectives are not the only objectives that justify the infringement of a prisoner’s constitutional right.

ORS 137.076 searches fall into a narrow class of searches and seizures of prisoners that are performed without probable cause and without a penological objective. These searches and seizures are performed for law enforcement purposes, specifically, to record the immutable characteristics of arrestees and offenders for use in the investigation of future crimes. Included in this class are the fingerprints, palm prints, toe prints and “other personal identifiers” that are seized by law enforcement officers after arrest. ORS 181.511. We are unwilling to say that fingerprinting someone after arrest is an unreasonable seizure.4 Likewise, we are unwilling to say that drawing a small amount of blood for a DNA “fingerprint” is an unreasonable search when the blood is drawn from a sex offender, after a magistrate has determined that the statutory criteria have been met.5

While blood-testing is arguably a greater insult to human dignity than fingerprinting,6 ORS 137.076 surrounds blood-testing with greater procedural safeguards. Like a fingerprint or a voice exemplar, blood-testing is a non-testimonial record of physical characteristics and involves “none of the probing into an individual’s life and thoughts [153]*153that marks an interrogation or a search.” Davis v. Mississippi, supra, n 4.

The dissent argues that drawing blood cannot be analogized to fingerprinting. However, its argument rests on a strained reading of state and federal case law. The dissent reasons as follows: Because State v. Cullop, 19 Or App 129, 526 P2d 1048, rev den (1974), held that, during his trial, a criminal defendant could be fingerprinted without a warrant, and because State v. Milligan, supra, held that blood-testing of a criminal suspect was subject to the warrant requirement, fingerprinting and blood-testing cannot be analogous. This reasoning is unpersuasive. State v. Milligan, supra, is inapposite to the case at bar. In Milligan, the police drew a blood sample from a suspect as evidence of a particular crime. In this case, the blood is sought from an adjudicated, incarcerated sex offender for identification purposes.

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Bluebook (online)
878 P.2d 432, 129 Or. App. 148, 1994 Ore. App. LEXIS 1108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-juvenile-department-v-orozco-orctapp-1994.